Second chances
by WhisperingImagination
Summary: The asylum burns down and Gilbert is the lone survivor. When it is rebuilt it becomes abandoned due to the murders, ghosts and disappearances. One day Gilbert finds doppelgängers of three special patients. I wonder what will happen. Human!AU


Disclaimer: I don't own Don't hug me I'm scared or any of its characters.

At first I thought they were ghosts. Spirits come to haunt me for failing to help them in life.

Yet, they were different. They moved the same. They acted the same. Even the clothes were similar! They were identical, except for the colour. What was yellow became green, what was green was now red, red turned blue and blue is now yellow.

I eventually learned they had different names as well. The eldest who spoke in a monotone voice who I knew as Red, was instead referred to as Harry. The young boy with the questionable hair cut was Dennis but everyone called him Manny. The intelligent one with the funny voice and short temper is Crow yet his name is Robin.

The few differences were striking but I knew it was them. Their personalities hadn't changed a bit and despite the colour change they could be twins, right down to the clothes.

At first I tried to avoid them.

It was embarrassing how badly I failed. Truth to be told, I'm glad I did or I never would have known what I do.

I stepped out the taxi, brushed away some of the blue dreadlocks that had fallen into my eyes and surveyed the hotel we would be staying in for the rest of the summer vacation. A whole two months before we would return to the place we call home. Not that we would miss it.

A tugging at my sleeve brought my gaze down. "Harry," a young boy with blonde hair looked at me desperately, "I need to go!"

"I thought I told you to go before we left." The exasperated redhead interjected.

"I did!"

I rubbed my temples, trying to rid my self of the headache I could feel coming on. "Robin, could you take him while I check in?"

"Sure. Come on, Manny." Robin lead him down the halls that presumably lead to the bathroom.

I wondered over to the check in desk and tried to get a room but various complications and computer malfunctions eventually resulted in the embarrassed looking clerk heading back into the staff only room to sort it out. As I was waiting for her to come back a loud crash sounded behind me.

I whirled around and saw a man in his late forties who had dropped several files and a coffee mug which had shattered and spilt its contents all over the floor. Most worrying was his expression, he was staring in my general direction like he had seen a ghost and the terror on his face spoke volumes of the malevolence of this supposed spirit.

Upon seeing his expression and where it was aimed I spun around again, looking for the assumed evil spirt. I didn't see anything so I looked back at the man who still hadn't moved a muscle. "Sir?" I asked, "are you alright?"

The sound of my voice seemed to do something because he made a strangled sound and tried to run away but ended up slipping in the coffee and slamming into the ground.

Alarmed, I hurried over to him and held out a hand to help him up. Instead of taking it like most people or being a proud jerk and ignoring it, he shielded away and scrambled backwards as best as he could.

I frowned as a starting revelation crossed my mind. Was he afraid...of me?

This thought did not compute. It was undeniably the truth but I couldn't imagine why. I wasn't a a threatening figure, sure I was tall but that was it. I didn't have any weapons on me or anything that could be mistaken for one nor could I recall doing something that would cause this reaction. Unless he was afraid of the colour blue (I was wearing my favourite blue jumper, blue pants and blue sneakers not to mention the blue hair) but I doubted it because his clothes were alternating blue and green except for his shoes which were the same snow white as his hair.

"I'm not going to hurt you," I reassured him. He didn't seem even remotely reassured. I knelt down and picked up the files and tried to hand them to him. He didn't want to take them.

I decided to do what I normally do with Manny and Robin to get them to calm down or cheer up when they got panicked or upset, which wasn't often because Manny is generally extremely cheerful and despite being prone to worrying Robin is usually much too levelheaded to work himself into a tizzy. The idea was to say something silly but rather stupid.

"Ummm," I started, looking around for inspiration and my gaze landed upon the files in my hand. "Wouldn't it be funny if one of these files came to life, like, ummm..." I moved the file so it was 'dancing' and started singing, well as best as I could with my monotone voice. "I am a file and you..." What would a file even sing about? "Put documents in me...and then, ummm, do do doo, a file..."

His reaction really shouldn't have surprised me but it did. He didn't laugh like Manny or anyone with a good sense of humour would've. He didn't give me a look that said 'your an idiot.' like Robin would've. He didn't look ready to die of embarrassment or ask me what drugs I was on like the rest of the population. He didn't even do what I would've done-say, "that sounds really boring." And look as uninterested as possible. Instead he screamed, leaped up and was out the door faster than I thought humanly possible.

"Was it something I said?"

We made our way to the lobby, following the directions someone had been nice enough to give us. We had managed to get lost so it had taken much longer to get back than it should've. I was feeling rather embarrassed because it really wasn't big enough to qualify needing a map and I was irritated with myself for being stupid.

A man came running down the corridor, screaming bloody murder. As soon as he saw us he froze in his tracks.

"Are you okay?" Manny asked at the same time I asked, "what's wrong?"

He fainted...

After a bit of debating we decided to take him to Harry. We didn't call the hospital because he didn't seem hurt. He was heavier than he looked but between the two of us we managed to carry him back to the lobby.

The clerk came back and asked me what happened, I gave her the short version. Before she could reply Robin and Manny came in, hauling the man who had just run away from me screaming conked out between them.

"What happened?!" The clerk cried and I had a faint sense of Daja vué. Probably because she had just asked me that question.

"He fainted," Manny claimed, rather unhelpfully because we had already figured that out.

"Not our fault," Robin was quick to add. Normally, I would be suspicious about how quick he was to tell us this if I hadn't seen how freaked out the guy was myself. Honestly, I was surprised it hadn't happened sooner.

The clerk, who's name was Latopa according to her name tag, leaned over and saw his face and gasped, "oh! It's Gilbert! That explains it. I can take it from here."

"What? You don't mean that this a regular occurrence do you?" Robin voiced the obvious question.

"Not too often but often enough that I'm used to it. We're neighbors and good friends, so I look out for him." Latopa must have been a terrible gossip or something because she continued, "the poor fella has Post Traumatic Distress, you see, he used to work at a mental hospital and I dodged a bullet because I applied to work there as well but some guy, Collin I think, took the spot. Anyway, apparently the place was terrible, anyone who wasn't already insane went over the edge. Eventually the place burned down, good riddance I say! Unfortunately, poor Gilbert was the only survivor. They rebuilt the place but its abandoned now 'cause everyone thinks it's haunted. ...There's something off about that place..." She frowned staring off into the distance shuddering slightly, but after a second the bright smile was back, "so, anyway, he panics whenever something reminds him of the place, though from what you've told me this seems to be the worst one yet! I haven't seen him have a fully blown panic attack since he walked in on a teacher telling the students to 'get creative'."

She scooped Gilbert up, bridal style, and said to us, "I'll take him home, the boss will understand. Oh, by the way here's your keycard, room number 1906, fourteenth floor." She handed me the keycard and was gone before I could say another sentence.

The elevator was quiet and no one felt like speaking. Though the story wasn't that scary it had given me chills and felt weirdly familiar. The others felt it too, I could tell.

The oddest thing though, was when she said 'get creative' an oddly cheerfully tune popped into my head and I couldn't get it out nor could I figure out what the words to the tune were. The song also gave me a weird sinking feeling for some reason, like drowning in oil.

"You can press the buttons." Harry said quietly. There was a slight quaver and uncertainty in his voice that most people wouldn't notice. It was one of the things I loved about Harry. Most people took him for emotionless because his hair often dropped in his face and covered his usually bland expression and the monotone voice often caused people to think there was no change or emotion in it. However if you knew him well and paid attention you could hear the slight changes that quickly gave away how he was feeling.

"Oh, yeah... Thanks." Normally I loved pressing the elevator buttons and always jumped at the chance but today threw me for a loop. I paused before pressing the fourteenth button, noticing something was missing. "Where's the thirteenth floor?"

"Most hotels skip the number thirteen because it's considered unlucky." Robin explained, the usual joy and pride at getting to explain something notably absent.

I pressed the button, "but doesn't that mean we're on the thirteenth floor?"

Robin blinked, "I never thought of it that way but, yes, I suppose it does."

There were a few seconds of silence before Harry broke it, "I wonder what he was so afraid of."

"Us, I guess." Robin shrugged.

"But we're not scary..." I pointed out.

The elevator doors dinged open.

"I wonder what will happen." That sentence was as close to a catchphrase as Harry had. Well whatever happened, I had the feeling that this would not be the last we saw of the strange duo.


End file.
